A line forms at Precinct 15 inside St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church on Election Day. Officials reported only a few disruptive incidents, the most serious being a dispute between election judges of different parties in the Third Ward.

Photo: Michael Paulsen, Houston Chronicle

A line forms at Precinct 15 inside St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church...

A tediously long ballot, stormy weather and tense confrontations at the polls made for a bumpy Election Day in Harris County, but authorities said the daylong stream of complaints Tuesday were mostly minor matters that did not appear to compromise the voting process.

"It's been a river of crud, but we've handled it," said Terry O'Rourke, first assistant with the Harris County Attorney's Office.

"So far, the worst-case scenario for which we prepared did not happen," he said.

By shortly after midnight, with 99 percent of precincts reporting, 779,850 ballots had been counted in Harris County, including about 445,000 cast during the early-voting period. That's a turnout of nearly 41 percent of registered voters.

By shortly after midnight, with 99 percent of precincts reporting, 779,850 ballots had been counted in Harris County, including about 445,000 cast during the early-voting period. That's a turnout of nearly 41 percent of registered voters.

Authorities had prepared for potential snags after an Aug. 27 fire destroyed most of the county's election equipment.

County Clerk Beverly Kauf­man put in a rush order to vendor eSlate to replace the machines, and the county was able to have almost as many in place on Tuesday as had been originally planned.

But just in case, officials offered voters the option of casting paper ballots for the first time in nearly a decade.

About 10,000 voters chose that method, Kaufman said, but none of the paper ballots had been counted by early this morning.

The most serious incident reported at the polls was a dispute between a Democratic judge and a Republican alternate judge that threatened to disrupt voting at the Third Ward's Precinct 210 polls at Saint Mary's Catholic Church, 3006 Rosedale, said Rock Owens, senior assistant county attorney.

"The acting judge was of the opinion that the alternate judge was not fulfilling her duties, and the alternate judge refused to leave," said Owens.

"If you don't do what your boss says, you get fired," he noted. "Basically it's just like a boss firing an employee. The alternate judge is not a co-judge. She's there in case the judge can't do his job."

Owens said the alternate judge's actions apparently disrupted voting.

"She was harassing the voters and slowing the voting down and making the voting difficult," he said.

No arrest, no charges

The precinct's acting judge called the county attorney's office, which sent a lawyer to the scene, along with an investigator and deputy constables, Owens said.

He said authorities were prepared to arrest the alternate judge, but by the time they arrived, the alternate judge had left.

No charges were filed. Owens did not release the name of the alternate judge.

"All I can say is we're sorry this had to happen," he said.

"People have to keep their personal differences away from the polling place so voters can get their part of the process done," he said.

At Wheatley High School in the Fifth Ward, a precinct judge concerned about voter intimidation called authorities three times to remove poll watchers.

Precinct judge Carolyn Moore said she needed help to deal with aggressive poll watchers who interfered with election operations and positioned themselves inappropriately close to voters and voting machines.

She said one man wanted a seat at the sign-in table in the school auditorium and would not move when asked.

"He would not leave, and I just think that it's intimidation to the voters," said Moore.

Other poll watchers were similarly uncooperative, she said.

Voter reportedly upset

Harris County constables were called three times, but the poll watchers left before authorities arrived.

"It's been a horrible experience all day," Moore said.

Witnesses outside the polling place said an elderly man stormed out of the high school shouting that a man was standing near him and telling him who to vote for.

"A citizen just came out and said, 'I'm not voting. They are trying to tell me who to vote for,' " said Diane Landin, who was campaigning outside the school in favor of Proposition 1. "He was really upset."

Owens said such confrontations are unfortunate but not unexpected during such an emotional election. He said his office could not confirm any allegations of overt voter intimidation.

"I think this election has just been kind of highly charged, and the poll watchers are just something that people aren't really used to, and they could stand some better training and maybe the poll workers could've stood better training," Owens said. "But all in all, it's not really that different from other elections, just a little more friction."